


Management

by entanglednow



Category: Lost
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-02-04
Updated: 2010-02-04
Packaged: 2017-10-14 17:29:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 834
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/151715
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/entanglednow/pseuds/entanglednow
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Richard's good at fixing things before they become a problem.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Management

  
Richard doesn't have to wait in the doorway for long. Ben's never so focused that he doesn't notice when he's being watched. It's a self preservation instinct that they both share. Even turned away from him and leant slightly over the desk.

"What can I do for you, Richard?" he asks, after what he's obviously decided is a long enough pause.

Richard steps inside, brings himself close.

"One of the reasons I'm here is to manage the problems that show up, to bring them to your attention," he says slowly.

Ben turns around and looks at him over the top of his glasses, as if he can sense a hesitation, and there's a certain wariness to his intensity now.

"And I'm assuming there's a problem you're having difficulty managing?"

"Just -" Richard stops, wondering how best to explain, to unravel this in words.

"Just what, Richard?" Ben asks, curious but sharp.

Richard makes a small, soft noise because it would be so much easier, so much quicker, to step around the games and careful back and forth of conversation entirely and to just show him.

He slides the paper out of Ben's hand without looking at it. Ben looks briefly wary before his expression relaxes into something questioning.

Richard makes a noise, half curious as to whether Ben will let him. But he's close enough to try. He's already half turned into him, palm flat on the desk and it's really just a matter of leaning in, of moving until there's a flare of warmth against his mouth.

There's a fraction of a second where Ben stays, where he gives under the pressure - before he stiffens and takes a step back.

It takes him a few obvious seconds to find words.

"Though I appreciate the offer that isn't something that needs to be _managed,_ " he says stiffly.

"Are you sure about that?" Richard asks. Like it isn't something he's been considering, carefully planning for a while.

For a second Ben looks offended, or perhaps he's simply feigning it. Either way, it's there and Richard's forced to react to it.

"I assure you, I wouldn’t find it a chore." He adds a smile to the words, half-there and careful. Because that's not a lie and he doesn't have to hide it. "You're having trouble containing your irritation, I haven't seen you this tense for years."

Ben raises an eyebrow.

"Oh, so now you're insinuating my judgement is impaired."

"I was insinuating nothing I was just -" Richard stops talking, spreads his hands in an effort to appear harmless. "I was just making an observation."

"After, of course, offering your services," Ben says flatly, all veins of irritated disapproval.

Richard can't resist laughing at that.

"You make it sound so clinical, when really I was just offering to give you an opportunity to relieve a little tension."

"With you?" Ben asks flatly.

"With me, is that such a horrible idea?"

Ben makes a noise that's completely non-committal.

Richard lifts his hands and very carefully draws Ben's glasses free. His hands twitch at his sides, as if he's compelled to at least try and stop him. But they go still when Richard's fingertips drag over his skin.

"Don't refuse because you think you should," Richard tells him quietly, tone of voice suggesting that's exactly what he expects Ben to do. "Refuse if it's something you don't want, but not because you think you shouldn’t, that you can't."

He sets the frames down on the table, takes a single step and lifts a hand. Ben's warm through his shirt. Though he's made entirely of tiny shifting, twitching movements under his fingers.

Richard waits a beat, then two and when he doesn't step back, doesn’t even look as if he wants to, he folds his hands there. Not to hold him, he suspects Ben wouldn’t stand for such a thing, just to encourage him not to drift away.

Richard is tempted to laugh at the quiet suspicion, at the stillness.

But Ben doesn't step back again, doesn't resist, like he wants to see what Richard will do. He doesn’t make a sound but he lets Richard slide into his personal space, lets him breathe against him. There's a sense that he's being tested though he sees no reason to object to that, it's fair under the circumstances. The gradual increase in pressure is slow, careful. When Richard eases away it's to breathe Ben's name. To question whether his stillness is disinterest or caution.

But the reaction to that murmur is unexpected.

There are fingers in his own shirt and Ben's mouth is open and the kiss is not as careful. Not as measured, it's sliding all the way into something real and alive and unexpected.

Richard's hip knocks into the desk and there's pressure there, insistence. There's tension there that Richard thinks might break if he pushes it hard enough. Break all the way open and leave them somewhere sharp and greedy.

He thinks he wouldn’t object to that at all.


End file.
